Some widgets have options that are only available when you get Core Membership.

We've split the page into zones!

Certain widgets can only be added to certain zones.

"Why," you ask? Because we want profile pages to have freedom of customization, but also to have some consistency. This way, when anyone visits a deviant, they know they can always find the art in the top left, and personal info in the top right.

Well, I have good news to bring in return: this is actually a misunderstanding of the TOS!

It goes around every year or so. I've known about it (and why it's wrong) for a while.

That section only gives DA the rights to use and modify your work on DA (for example, to produce thumbnails and show them in search results), and in promotional materials (for example, to make a "join DA to follow the artists who created these great pictures" post, or maybe to print a brochure).

It does not allow them to sell the license to your art to other companies (like Hot Topic). It definitely doesn't let them use your art to advertise any random non-DA thing (like the KKK).

The confusion seems to have started in 2014, when somebody took a piece of fanart from DA and got it sold on a shirt at Hot Topic. But that wasn't a legal thing that DA licensed. It was art theft -- and people who steal art from DA are just as willing to steal it from Twitter, Instagram, or any other place I could post.

I'm glad you like my art, and that you're concerned about artists being treated right! But this situation is actually fine, and DA is as safe as it can be, I promise.

I'm so happy to hear this cleared up, ErinP! I was getting a few replies saying that this was an exaggeration of the ToS, but I didn't understand how (again, it's hard for me to understand legal documents sometimes), and with the nsfw purge on Tumblr, everyone wanted to migrate to dA. Just to be extra cautious, though, I think I'll give dA a break and do more research before returning. Thank you for clearing this up!